Doing Somersaults
by Lady Lirimaer Malfoy
Summary: Hogwarts has a talent contest. Hermione enters, thinking that her "talent" is just something that she has been doing for a long time. Has a little unexpected twist, including a newly found Veela (not Draco), a Quidditch and allies only obessed Gryffindor


Chapter 1- The Rehearsal  
  
Hermione frowned as she landed in a split.. Standing up, she walked over to her water bottle and towel. She took a sip as she looked at the course that she had made.  
  
"Maybe I need to put the hand spring before the spread eagle," she said to no one. She was, after all, in the Room of Requirement. No one would bother her because they thought that she was in the library. Only Ron and Harry knew what she was doing.  
  
Hermione returned to the starting point. On the count of 3, she started a series of flips, handsprings, and dance moves. Finishing with another split, she decided that she had finally perfected her routine. Too bad that wasn't why the judges had picked her for the finals.   
  
She fingered a strand of her straight, silvery-blonde hair. She was getting used to it and the stares she received when she entered a room.  
  
Her family's secret was one that they should have told her from the beginning, Hermione thought as she started to pull on her robes over her leotard. Although on further reflection she decided that telling a 2 year old that when she hit 16, she would have silvery-blonde hair, deep green eyes, and become amazingly prone to attention of all sorts, WOULD be tough.   
  
Gathering her bag, Hermione snuck out of the room and down to the Great Hall. She marched over to the Gryffindor table and sat next to Harry.  
  
"Mione, if you want to stop attracting attention, stop coming in so late. It will draw less attention," Ron advised, after swallowing the steak he had been chewing.  
  
"Ron's right for once," Harry agreed. "The bigger of a crowed you come with, the less people will notice you." He took a bite of his pork pie, waiting for her response.  
  
"I never mean to be late to dinner," Hermione protested to the only two boys that were able to keep their eyes off of her. "It's just that when I practice, I will find something wrong with my routine and then I HAVE to fix it because I'm afraid I'll forget it."  
  
"Hermione, the contest is a couple days away. Give yourself a break from practicing or you're not going to be able to do it on stage because of nerves," Ron pointed out, before shoveling more mashed potatoes into his mouth.   
  
"I can't help it. You'd be nervous too if you had never done anything on stage!" Hermione started to eat the chicken pot pie that she had piled on her plate.  
  
"You never did performances when you were younger?" Harry asked. "Or school plays? Or even classroom recitals?"   
  
"Nope. I was always stage hand or lights lady. I never did the performances," Hermione said.  
  
"Wow," Ron said.  
  
"If I may have your attention," a voice called over the Great Hall, making it fall silent as a wave of heads turned to look at Dumbledore. "Thank you. The first rehearsal for the Talent Contest will begin at 8 o'clock tonight. You are expected to be here if you are going to participate. Come with all of the props you are going to use and your costumes. That is all," Dumbledore announced, sitting back down.  
  
Almost instantly, the room filled with the buzz of chattering students, all of them talking about the Contest. It would be held on Halloween, and the party would follow. It was one of the biggest events of the year.  
  
Hermione sighed at the prospect of having 20+ students and teachers watching her dance in her costume. It was going to be a *long* night.  
  
***  
  
Draco smirked as he watched the rest of the contestants file into the Great Hall. No one here could give him a run for his money. There were a few flutes and harps and the like going around, 3 or 4 Ravenclaws with only their wands. A Gryffindor that held his broom, a Hufflepuff or 2 that were doing who knew what. Another group of what appeared to be Slytherins that looked like they were trying to pass off as homeless. Then last and most certainly least (because even pureblood Hufflepuffs are better in his eyes) Hermione Granger. The perfect Mudblood. She was wrapped tightly in her robe, as if it could protect her from the world.  
  
Draco had to admit that she looked less like a chipmunk now that she had normal front teeth and straight, blonde hair that was almost silver, like his own.  
  
He watched her join a group of people, attempting to seem normal.  
  
***  
  
Hermione grasped her robe tighter as one of the Hufflepuffs asked what she was doing.  
  
"Well, it's not really a talent," she blushed. "I've just been doing it a really long time."  
  
"But you must have impressed the teachers in the private auditions," the girl said. She was holding a Muggle flute.  
  
"What song are you playing?" Hermione asked, diverting attention.  
  
"It's called 'Shadow's End'. I wrote it myself." the Hufflepuff said, blushing a little. "By the way, I'm Kelli Macmillan, Ernie's little sister."  
  
"Hermione Granger," Hermione said, holding out her hand.  
  
"So you're the one that all the boy's are talking about," Kelli teased as she shook her hand. "Is it true about the whole Veela thing?"  
  
"Unfortunately, yes," Hermione sighed, grinning at the younger girl.   
  
"Everyone! Look this way!" Professor McGonagall called, getting everyone's attention. "We have formed a schedule for the Contest. All musicians will go first. When I say musicians, I mean people playing only an instrument. Then any other performers that have music in their act will go, then any other acts that there might be. Please line up in the groups that I have named." She turned away, leaving the students to group themselves.  
  
"See you after," Kelli said as she walked forward. Hermione inserted herself into the second group line, the cd to which she was dancing grasped tightly in her hand.   
  
***  
  
Hermione started to yawn after the first 3 performers. There had been a Ravenclaw that transformed her wand into a piccolo flute, a Hufflepuff with a French horn, and a Gryffindor that had taken out a pipe and started to play a tune like the Pied Piper's, in the very feeble attempt to summon owls to him.  
  
Her interest was recaptured as her arch enemy, Draco Malfoy, walked up on to the stage. One of the teacher's had placed a piano in the corner of it and he walked over to it. Hermione felt her interest grow as he pulled out a song book and started to play. It was beautiful and enchanting, with its haunting melody.   
  
Hermione noticed that many of the other contestants had their eyes glued on to the boy. She herself felt as if the world would stop if the song did. It took a few moments before she remembered that she had heard it before. Her 5th grade choir teacher had had them perform this song, although Hermione hadn't gone to the concert.  
  
She started to hum along with it, but after a while, she started to sing it under her breath.  
  
The dark mixes with the light  
  
I knew it would come to this  
  
No one heard the pain  
  
That the world cried  
  
Now they all need someone   
  
To call their own  
  
The horizon starts to blur  
  
As gold begins to fade  
  
Swirls of love and swirls of hate  
  
I can't tell the difference   
  
Between the two  
  
Watch the dark mix with light  
  
Do you hear the crying  
  
Someone's lost   
  
In a sea of pain  
  
Can't you hear their call  
  
Watch the horizon start to blur  
  
Everything's going grey  
  
As that gold begins to fade  
  
The world is crying  
  
Crying beyond the grey  
  
Draco ended the song and bowed from his seat, then collected his song book and walked off the stage. Kelli bounded up behind him, conjured a stand for her sheet music and began to play a swift, perky song. It was all in high notes, and reminded Hermione of the music that used to go along with Tinker Bell (Peter Pan). It was light, and airy, with out one stumble.  
  
Hermione clapped fiercely when the song ended, because Kelli deserved it. To think that she was already that talented at writing and playing her own music.  
  
"Now if the next group of performers would step forwards, we will start the next part of the performance," McGonagall called.  
  
Hermione found that she was at the head of the line. She discarded her robe reluctantly and stepped forward onto the stage. She was wearing balloon sleeved shirt that was like a second skin everywhere else, and a long, floor length skirt with side slits all the way up to her hips. It was a deep, forest green that set off her eyes. She had on skin colored tights and the bottoms of her two piece emerald leotard underneath.  
  
She conjured a radio and the course that she had used in the Room of Requirement. Placing her wand next to the radio, she popped in the cd. Hermione scurried to her place, right before the beginning strains of a fast paced instrumental started. At her cue, she started her routine. When the song and her ended in a split, she looked up to find that everyone was clapping wildly.   
  
She made the radio and course disappear after she had removed her cd, then walked off stage. She managed to get to a back table before anyone could stop her.   
  
***  
  
Draco couldn't believe it. Perfect Granger, wearing a out fit that at any other gathering would have been deemed sluty. He watched as she nervously conjured a strange looking course, then turned back to his pumpkin juice. However, he turned back when he heard the music. He had moved just on time to see the Mudblood start to dance. She did so many flips and handsprings and twists that Draco was starting to wonder whether she was really made of rubber. The song ended with her legs going in opposite directions, a position that he decide a human body shouldn't be able to perform.  
  
Watching her remove all of her props from the stage, he started towards the table that she was headed towards. He sat down at the end of it and started to observe her taking out her water bottle. He decided to ask her if she was a human or a rubber band.  
  
***  
  
Hermione took a long sip from her water bottle. When she had placed it down on the table in front of her, she started to watch the Ravenclaws that had had their wands create music and fountains and other things that moved in time to the beat.  
  
"Are you a human or a rubber band?" a voice asked from her right. Draco Malfoy had sat with his back to the table next to her, with out her even noticing.  
  
"I'm human," Hermione replied. "But I'm taking the comment to meant that you watched it for the entire thing." She smiled at his obvious discomfort with the question. "If you tell me whether you liked it or not, I won't tell a soul that you watched Mudblood Granger do what many refer to as a sexy dance," she offered.  
  
"If that's the case, then, yeah. I liked it. How long did you have to practice to get your body to bend in those ungodly directions?" he asked.  
  
"Not very long. I've been doing gymnastics most of my life, so I just needed to do a couple of laps around the lake every day to get back into shape," Hermione admitted.   
  
"So, did you like my performance, which now looks like it could use some polishing?" Draco asked, knowing that at any minute she could explode at him. They were, after all, normally enemies.   
  
"It was perfect. I sang that song for chorus when I as younger and I have to say that you should get someone to sing it along with you," Hermione advised. "And the song doesn't need to be polished up."  
  
"Who would you suggest to sing it?" Draco questioned, secretly glad that she thought it was perfect.  
  
"Well, Lavender Brown is a good singer. So isn't Padma Patil," Hermione started. At the look of horror on Draco's face that had to be related to the thought of performing with someone out of his own house, she laughed. "Ok, how about Pansy? Lavender says that she is pretty good in Magical Musics."  
  
"How about you sing it?" Draco decided, knowing that Pansy was not a good singer at all and he would rather eat his own eyeballs then ask a Gryffindor that he didn't know.  
  
"Let's think about that," Hermione grinned. "I'm a Gryffindor and we are supposed to be enemies for one. Reason two could be that I already have an act," she pointed out.   
  
"I bet that Snape would let you perform twice if it would make my act better," Draco insisted. "And if we won then we would both be guaranteed a trophy."  
  
"I suppose that I could always turn on the old charm. . ." Hermione grinned audaciously.  
  
"What are you talking about?" he asked.  
  
"I'm quite offended," Hermione sniffed, as if her honor had been imposed upon. "How could you have no idea as to what I am?"  
  
"Maybe because I haven't paid much attention to you in the past." Draco was starting to think that this girl was rather scary sometimes.  
  
"I'm part Veela. My mother is one, too." Hermione shrugged. "Now that they told me, I know why my mother always got away with speeding."  
  
"Oh. That clears up a lot." Draco stated.  
  
"What does that clear up?" Hermione asked, curiously.   
  
"The reason that it seems you can't enter a room with out attracting some kind of male attention," Draco replied, watching her watch the newest act, a group of Slytherins that called themselves the Weird Siblings.   
  
"That has to be the one thing that I don't like about all of this," she said.  
  
"You don't like attention?" he asked. That right there puzzled him. Most people would kill for the attention she got, both from the teachers and the students. "I would have thought that a bookworm like you would love attention. I guess not though, huh?"   
  
"I hate it. I can't even walk into my dorm to change with out one of the girls secretly trying to spy on me. And if I want to go to the library, I need to make myself invisible so that no one will bother me. And trying to get to classes is horrible." Hermione groaned at the thought of it and laid her head down on her crossed arms which lay on the table.  
  
"I am very glad that I'm in Slytherin," Draco decided. When Hermione lifted her head to give him a questioning look, he continued. "At least when I attract attention, people, most of them anyway, they know enough to leave me alone. Your problem is that people know you to be kind and always helpful. They try to take advantage of that," Draco reasoned.  
  
"And I suppose that if I start to act like you, people will stop bothering me about my hair and eyes?" Hermione teased.  
  
"Maybe. They might start to think that I have, for reasons unknown, taken over your body." Draco grinned at the thought.  
  
"I don't want to what was running through your head when that smirk crossed your face," she warned.  
  
"I don't think that I would tell you any way," Draco replied, turning to face the table.  
  
For a few minutes, they watched a pair of Hufflepuffs do clown acts, with juggling and miming. Hermione had to admit that they looked very funny doing that, while managing to keep the audience interested.  
  
"What are you going to do when Potter and Weasley see you doing that dance?" Draco asked, the smirk still firmly in place.  
  
"Run to the other side of the castle, lock myself in one of the dungeons, and pray that they don't find me until they aren't mad anymore," Hermione shrugged. "I suppose that I could always camp out on the Astronomy Tower."  
  
"The Sorting Hat really gives one a bad image of what a Gryffindor really is like," Draco smirked. "I thought that you were supposed to face your problems without fear, yet you are talking about running."  
  
"Well, I'm going to have to run," Hermione said as she took a quick glance at her magic watch. "Harry and Ron are expecting me and if they come looking for me and find us being civil. . ." She merely gave him an apologetic look.  
  
". . .The world as we know it will be destroyed as they attempt to purge us both of what ever has appeared to posses us." Draco finished for her. "Don't worry about. I can't expect everyone to understand that sometimes enemies can have conversations when no one else is around.'  
  
"I'll think about the singing thing, though," she promised as she rose to leave the Great Hall.  
  
When she returned to the Common Room, she found Ron and Harry playing Wizard Chess off in the corner.   
  
"Hi, guys!"  
  
It was then that she noticed a piece of parchment on the table next to Harry. A very OLD piece of parchment.  
  
********************************************************************************************  
  
OK. It was a really long first chapter for me. [the longest before it was 5 pages] I hope that people like it. . . It's my first D/Hr and I am trying to make the most of it. Well, Read & Review! 


End file.
